


take the kid from faerie

by greywardenblue



Series: shelter me [1]
Category: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Gen, Gillian has a girlfriend who is an original character, Quentin is dating both Dean and Raj, and Gillian and Dean miight have a thing, there is NO romance between her and Rand obviously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-27 14:13:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19792573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywardenblue/pseuds/greywardenblue
Summary: -- you can't take faerie from the kid.Gillian Marks has always liked cats, although she rarely tells people the true reason - nobody would believe her, anyway. When she starts volunteering at a cat shelter, she makes friends with the other volunteers, including a man called Rand who seems to know more about cats than all the others combined. And Rand might just be weird enough to not think she's too weird.





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Idril_Celebrindal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idril_Celebrindal/gifts).



> Most of the fic takes place between A Local Habitation and Chimes at Midnight, with the last section skipping ahead to Night and Silence. All the scenes are labelled with dates and book names, so if you haven't read the latest book yet, you can choose to only read the parts before it.

**Summer, 2010** [Local Habitation ** Artificial Night]

“That’s all the basics, I think. Do you have any questions?” Leah looked at her with an encouraging smile, and Gillian nodded.

“Yeah, one.” She pointed through the window to the man in the other room, who had no less than four cats on his head, back and shoulders, with three others crowding around his feet. “Does that happen a lot?”

Leah followed her gaze and let out a laugh. “Oh, that’s Rand. I mean, yeah, the cats climb on everyone, honestly, but Rand… well, he’s basically a cryptid.” At Gillian’s confused expression, she continued. “He’s not officially on the volunteer list or anything. He just comes in without a warning whenever he feels like it, tells us what we are doing wrong, and how to do it right. It can be really annoying sometimes, but he knows so much about cats that we just let him do his thing. I’m pretty sure he can actually talk to them or something.” Leah’s phone chirped, and she let out a sigh. “Hey, do you think you can handle the feeding in that room? Rand will probably help if you ask him nicely. He knows where everything is, in case you get stuck.”

“Sure thing.” Leah gave her a grateful smile and hurried away, and Gillian went to get the cat food out of the cabinet. 

As soon as she entered the room with the cats, nearly the entire population of the room crowded around her, eager to get to the food and yelling loudly - but it took only a softly spoken “behave” from Rand to silence them. (Well, all except the kittens, who were still loudly yelling in their own enclosure.)

O-kay. The guy was definitely magic. Possibly dark magic.

And now he was staring at her like  _ she _ was the weird one.

“Uh, hi. That’s a neat trick. Was I interrupting something?”

He blinked suddenly like he just yanked himself out of some deep thought, and he smiled at her widely. “I was rearranging the shelves so Lady Marshmallow can sit up there in the corner, where she wishes. But feeding time comes first. Do you need a hand?”

“Yeah, tha--”

“My name is Rand,” he said as he reached out to take one of the bags from her. “And you are?”

“Gillian. I’m new.”

“Nice to meet you, Gillian. What brings you here?”

The cats still followed them around, but to Gillian’s shock, most of them waited until the bowls were full and the hands pulled back before they threw themselves on the food.

“I needed something to do over the summer,” Gillian said cautiously. “And, well, I love cats.” For a moment, she almost considered telling the truth. If Rand was as weird as Leah implied - and from what she’s already seen, he definitely was - he might just be the first person in her life who wouldn’t think she was crazy if she told him. But it was still a little too much for a first meeting.

Rand smiled. “That’s the most important thing.” Then his face got more serious. “Well, not always. There are plenty of people who claim to love cats, but they don’t know how to actually understand and take care of cats, so they end up hurting their companions instead. But that’s part of why we are here, to teach each other.”

Gillian nodded. “I’ve never actually had a cat before,” she confessed. “My mom is allergic.”  
  
Rand looked amused. “Is she now?”

It was a little strange for a response, but definitely not stranger than the cats not climbing on her when she had food in her hands. “Yeah. I have some fish and turtles, and they are great, and I guess they wouldn’t get on well with a cat anyway. Still, it would be nice. And, uh - I definitely want to learn how to care for them properly, so just tell me if I mess up.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. The cats will definitely tell you if you mess up. I will teach you how to listen.” One of the cats meowed, and Rand looked at it for a moment before turning back to Gillian with a smile. “Perhaps you should check if Leah needs something?”

Gillian understood the dismissal even if she didn’t understand why she got it, so she nodded quickly and did as she was told. Don’t argue with the weird guy who can definitely talk to the cats.

\--

During the summer months, Gillian visited the shelter around three times a week. Rand came in at least once every two weeks, although not always on days when Gillian was there. Sometimes he stayed for an hour, just looking around, and sometimes he was there for three days straight. 

He never announced when he was coming, and as far as Gillian knew nobody at the shelter knew his phone number. When one of the older volunteers asked, Rand gave them the number to a restaurant nearby and said the owner would know how to reach him.

Because that wasn’t weird or anything.

The next time they met, Rand apologised to her for cutting their first interaction short. He explained - in surprisingly flowery language - that he’d had a lot on his mind that day, and probably didn’t make the best first impression. Gillian said it was fine.

And really, Rand having entire conversations with the shelter’s cats wasn’t that weird. Plenty of the volunteers did it, pretending that they could understand each meow and the cats understood them in return. How was he any different from any other cat enthusiast?

“Rand? He’s a nice guy, I suppose,” said Ron, a thirty-year-old man with a rainbow bracelet and an Arctic Monkeys T-shirt, while they were introducing an orphaned kitten to its new foster mom. “I tried to ask him out once, but literally all he cares about are cats and theatre.”  
  
“That sounds awesome, though,” Gillian said.

“Yeah, don’t get me wrong, those are both great. I just meant that I’ve been here for five years, guy comes in at least once every two weeks, and I barely know his last name. I know more about his damn cat than I know about him. Not very big on sharing personal information, or making friends.” Ron paused. “With the humans, I mean. He makes friends with the cats, alright.”

“He has a cat?” Gillian asked.

“Yeah, it’s an Abyssinian. Bloody cute, and by that I mean he scratches you bloody if you try to touch him. Rand brings him in sometimes. You’d think it was his kid, the way Rand talks to him.”

\--

When Gillian entered the room, Rand was sitting on the ground with no fewer than six kittens on him. He looked up when she stepped in, and wordlessly offered her a kitten. She accepted it gladly.

“Which flag is that?” he asked, gesturing towards her jacket. 

“Oh, this?” Gillian touched the pin a little nervously. She was at least the third person she’d seen around the shelter who wore Pride flags, so if Rand has been coming here a long time he probably had no problem with it, but you never knew. “It’s the bisexual flag.”

Rand nodded. “I thought so. I like the colours. Maybe I should acquire a pin as well, although exact labelling was never to my liking. For myself, I mean.”  
  
Gillian paused. Unless she misunderstood the comment, that sure sounded like personal information. Maybe Rand only chose to share it to reassure her.

“You could always wear a rainbow. That’s the umbrella flag.” Gillian sat on the floor next to Rand, and smiled as the kittens climbed over her. “Hey, Ron said you like theatre. Do you like musicals too?”

Rand hummed. “I do prefer the classics, but let’s say I’m open to new experiences.” Gillian opened her mouth, and he held up a hand. “If you ask me if I like Cats, I’m going to leave the room.” 

Gillian closed her mouth. Then she smirked. “What about The Lion King musical?”   
  
Rand groaned. “My nephew loves that one. He just can’t wait to be king, apparently. He has a lot of growing to do before that.” He gestured to another one of her jacket pins. “Do you like David Tennant?” 

“Do I like David Tennant,” Gillian repeated. “Do I LIKE David Tennant?!”

Rand let out a laugh. “I thought so. I’ve followed his career in theatre since the ‘90s, but nowadays he’s popular with the youths for another reason.”

“Oh. My. God. I’m still not over Donna. Do you like Catherine Tate? She does theatre too, I think. I admit I haven’t really looked into it. Anyway, she’s an amazing actress. And her chemistry with the Doctor is even better. Like, they are good friends, but everyone always thinks they are married, and--”

Rand knew next to nothing about Doctor Who and claimed he’d last watched the series around the fifth Doctor (Gillian teased him about being a childhood fan, and he snorted), but he did seem open to her explaining the more recent plotlines. He put up with her fangirling admirably, and even asked questions that showed he was not just pretending to listen. Later, he reciprocated by enthusiastically talking about productions of the Royal Shakespeare Company, including the ones with David Tennant, that his nephew apparently showed him on DVD. By the end of the summer, Gillian decided Rand was pretty neat.

\----

**Fall, 2010** [Artificial Night *** Late Eclipses]

School coming back meant that Gillian had less time to volunteer, but she still tried her best to visit the shelter at least once a week, twice if she could manage it. Everyone in earshot was surprised when Rand asked her when she was coming in next, and after that the two of them started coordinating their visits to the same day. Of course, they still had no way of contacting each other unless Gillian wanted to call the restaurant (which she didn’t), but it was still nice to keep in touch with someone who became a friend over the summer.

“You know he’s way too old for you, right?” Leah asked suddenly sometime in September. Gillian stopped what she was doing and looked up.

“I sincerely hope you don’t mean Rand, because ewww. You know I’m seventeen, right?”

It was hardly a secret that both Leah and Ron had their own crushes on Rand at some point, with Leah’s being more in the present than Ron’s. Given that Ron was thirty, Leah twenty-five, and nobody had any idea about Rand but they placed him in his mid-thirties maybe, that was fine. But the assumption that Gillian would be joining their club made her want to barf.

“Well, yes, that’s exactly why I said it. He could be your dad.”

“Not really, unless he was like, a teen dad. But seriously, Leah, it’s not like that. He never acted creepy or anything, and I’m definitely not going to date some guy in his thirties.”

Leah watched her a few seconds longer, then sighed and put up her arms defensively. “Okay, okay! I was asking because I didn’t know if I should be worried, not because I’m jealous. I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t trying to hit on you or something. I know it can feel really flattering if an older guy flirts with you, but trust me, it rarely ends well.”

Gillian frowned. “Yeah, no offense, but this conversation is creeping me out way more than any of the ones I ever had with Rand.”

Leah laughed and let her be.

\--

Late in September, Rand stopped coming.

One week, they agreed on next Thursday as “their day”. On Thursday, Rand sent a note of apology with a teenager in fashionably (?) torn clothes that he has a personal emergency and wouldn’t be coming. The next week, there was no note.

The cats were more agitated, as if they could sense something was wrong. At one point, Gillian actually convinced Leah to call the restaurant whose number Rand left with them, but all the guy who answered told them was the same as in the note: Rand had a personal emergency. Instead, a couple of teenagers who looked somewhere between hipster and homeless came in every week to check on the cats, claiming to be Rand’s family, but they evaded all questions skillfully.

In the middle of October, Gillian arrived and was surprised to learn from Jack, another volunteer, that Rand did come in a few times, on days when Gillian wasn’t there. According to Jack, he was more quiet than usual and barely spoke to anyone. Gillian asked if he mentioned her at all, or if he said when he would next come. He didn’t. A tiny part of her felt offended. A bigger part of her felt really, really worried.

A few days before Halloween, Gillian was Googling the address of the restaurant and planning to go there in person when a girl about her age came in through the door followed by a huge brown tabby. Gillian had never seen her before, and yet she still seemed familiar. Something about her multicolored eyes, the orange dyed stripes in her dark hair, the way she wore her clothes… One thing was sure: she was one of Rand’s teenagers.

Gillian stood up fast and blocked the girl’s way without thinking. The stranger stared at her in surprise, and Gillian could feel herself blushing. “Uh, hello.” The girl said nothing - she tilted her head to the side and studied Gillian. “You are one of Rand’s friends, right?”

The girl was quiet for some long moments - then she blinked once, slowly, and smiled. “Yes. My name is Kate. And you are Gillian.”

“Rand mentioned me?”  
  
Kate shrugged. “In a way.”

Normally, Gillian would have asked her to elaborate on that. Normally, Rand didn’t go missing for an entire month. “Please, I just want to know if he’s okay. Everyone keeps saying he has an emergency, but nobody says what the emergency is. Is he sick? Is someone in his family sick? Will he come back?”

Kate didn’t take her eyes off of Gillian’s face while the girl rambled. “Why do you care so much?” she asked finally.

Gillian huffed. “He’s my friend. It’s normal to be worried when your friend is in trouble. If he was anybody else, I could have just called him, but I guess he’s allergic to technology newer than carrier pigeons, so that won’t work.”

Kate snorted. “You’re not wrong about the pigeons. Although…” She looked down at the tabby and smirked. “Cats and birds don’t mix well,” she said. Gillian was getting impatient.

“Please, just tell me what’s going on with Rand. I don’t need all the details, but… something. Please?”

Kate frowned, like she was trying really hard to decide how much she could say. She glanced down at the tabby, then back to Gillian. “Some of our kittens got kidnapped,” she said, and Gillian stared. 

“That’s it?” It slipped out before she could stop it, and she instantly knew it was the wrong thing to say, because Kate recoiled from her. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I just thought it was…”  _ Something more serious?  _ She knew the cats were important to Rand, he spoke about them as friends. She suddenly felt really guilty about her reaction. “I’m really sorry. So, he’s… grieving? Over the kittens?”

Kate shook her head. “No. Root and-- no, thankfully not. The kittens got kidnapped, and then one of Rand’s… associates managed to save them.” Kate’s gaze felt especially intense on Gillian’s face when she spoke of Rand’s  _ associate _ , and Gillian couldn’t figure out why. “But now she’s in…” Kate glanced away. “Hospital. She’s in hospital.”

That made more sense. Associate was a weird word that made Gillian think Rand might be involved in something shady, but the thought didn’t last long. What kind of shady person spends his time at cat shelters? No, Rand was just a little eccentric.

The brown tabby meowed, and Kate glanced down at it for a moment, then back to Gillian. “Listen, I’d love to chat, but I need to check on the cats. For Rand. Are you coming?”

Gillian nodded. “That’s a huge cat,” she commented while walking. Kate snorted.

“Yeah. Sometimes we tell people he’s part Maine Coon. I mean, I guess he might be, but mostly he’s just… like that.”

“What’s his name?”  
  
“Tybalt.”

Gillian raised an eyebrow, and looked down at the cat again. “From Romeo and Juliet?”

“Yeah. Rand named him.”

“I thought he had an Abyssinian.”

Kate laughed loudly, and so long that at first Gillian thought she wasn’t going to speak at all. Then she did. “We have a shitton of cats.”

\---

Before Kate left, she asked when Gillian was coming in next and promised to try her best to show up that day. The next week, they met twice. The first time, Gillian asked where she went to school and Kate shrugged and said she was homeschooled. The second time, she informed Gillian that Rand’s “associate” was out of the hospital and Rand would likely return to his regular schedule soon.

Sometime in November, Gillian stepped into the backroom and froze. Then she launched herself at Rand and hugged him without thinking. For a moment she thought he was going to push her away, but in the end he relaxed and returned the hug. So far, all their touching had been pats on the shoulders and occasionally a one-armed hug.

There was an indignant meow followed by a short laugh from Rand. Gillian pulled away and her eyes landed on-- the cutest Abyssinian kitten she has ever seen in her entire life. And she just had to voice that, of course.

“Oh my gosh, you’re so cuuute!” Gillian crouched next to the cat and held out her hand without touching. The kitten stared at her, then turned away. Rand snorted.

“He’s not a fan of strangers. Don’t take it personally.”

“Oh, he’ll warm up to me. Then we won’t be strangers anymore.” Gillian straightened looked at Rand seriously. “You disappeared.”

Rand flinched. “Yes. I am really sorry that I didn’t warn you. I was… not fit to be in your company.”

Again, that answer was weirder than she expected, but she had learned to roll with it. Gillian shrugged. “It’s fine, I was just really worried. Kate said that somebody kidnapped your kittens and then your friend saved them but then she got in the hospital?”

“I see Kate has kept you well-informed.”  
  
Gillian glanced down. “Is this one of the kittens that was kidnapped? Who even kidnaps cats, anyway?”

The kitten bristled at the question. No, that’s silly. The kitten couldn’t have understood what she was saying. Rand bent forward and picked him up, scratching behind his ear in a comforting gesture. “Yes. My prince is stronger than I imagined, but he is still young. He hasn’t learned that there’s no shame in not being invincible, because that would mean being ashamed of not achieving the impossible.” 

“Is your friend okay?” Gillian asked, unsure what else to say. Rand glanced up.

“She will be, I hope. She’s stronger than I imagined, too.”

\---

A week later, Kate officially signed up as a volunteer and started coming around regularly, sometimes alone, sometimes the same time as Rand. The two of them had a strange dynamic where they bantered easily, but you could still feel she deferred to him.

“She’s definitely a lesbian,” Jack said. “Did you see how she dresses? Like a disaster. Like, she just grabbed whatever she found in the thrift store pile and put it on.”

“That’s mean. Maybe they don’t have money for… better clothes,” Gillian said with a frown. Jack shrugged.

“I didn’t mean it in a mean way. I’m just saying, my gaydar is going off. And I have a pretty good one.”

Gillian had a pretty good idea, too, when Kate laughed with all her teeth showing, or when she winked at her, or when she suddenly cuddled up against her side like a cat. Sometimes, she could swear she heard Kate purring.

She was still surprised when Kate pressed a kiss to her lips. “See you later,” she said with a cheeky grin, and danced out of the building. Gillian stood frozen for a few seconds, blood gathering in her cheeks, then took a deep breath and turned around. Rand was still supposed to be in the back somewhere. As she walked towards him, she could hear his voice.

“Her mother practically adopted you, so that makes her your sister, you know. Don’t give me that look. I know you were at her place yesterday, too.”

He was talking to Prince, the Abyssinian. Gillian was barely surprised anymore when she heard the kitten meow in response.

\---

**Spring, 2011** [Late Eclipses *** One Salt Sea]

The next few months passed calmly. As Gillian suspected, Prince eventually warmed up to her. Rand only looked on in amusement as he curled into her lap, and rolled his eyes at her smug look. As for Kate, she started showing up at school to walk Gillian home, chattering all the way about something, or asking Gillian about some new thing that she didn’t understand. There were a lot of things she didn’t understand, and she always blamed her homeschooling and lack of internet access, which was fair enough. They sat in coffeeshops with Wi-Fi and Gillian showed her cat videos on her phone.

In April, Kate stopped showing up, both at school and at the shelter. Rand came less frequently, but at least he was there, even if he looked worn and miserable.

“Personal emergency,” Rand said, and it took some nudging to find out more. “My sister-in-law died, and several of my friends are sick.”

“What about Kate?” Gillian repeated. “Is she sick, too? Can I visit her?”

“Kate is unharmed, but she is grieving. We both are.”

Gillian was quiet for a while.

“This is volunteer work, you know. You’re allowed to take some time off. We’ll manage without you.”

Rand shook his head. “My people need me. All of them, even if some more than others right now. I cannot abandon my duties.” Gillian nodded like she understood, and didn’t point out that he referred to the cats as his people. It didn’t seem like he noticed.

It was May before Kate waited for her after school again, the skin around her eyes red and puffy from crying.

“I don’t think I’ve ever cried this much in my life,” she said. “It’s weird.”

Gillian hugged her tight and didn’t let go for a long time.

\---

“Rand!”

He looked up at the enthusiastic greeting and smiled a tired smile. He still looked worn and overworked, but at least he could smile now even if it looked forced.

“You won’t believe what I just found on the internet!” Gillian continued enthusiastically. This will cheer him up, it had to. “David Tennant and Catherine Tate are playing Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing! The DVD only comes out next February, and I couldn’t find a proper recording, only blurry videos, but it looks so good so far! I think you’re going to love it.”

Rand perked up when David Tennant was mentioned, and his smile gradually grow wider as she went on speaking. “And it’s funny?”

“It’s hilarious! I laughed out loud through all the parts I’ve seen.”

“Where would I find these videos, exactly?”

“Well, they are on YouTube, but some of the videos are set to private and I got the link through DMs…” She paused when she saw she had lost him. “Do you have any kind of social media where I can send you the links?”

Rand hummed. “I’ll figure something out and get back to you about it.”

“Cool. Wait, I can show you one of the clips on my phone.”

They both laughed as they watched Catherine Tate in a suit sit next to Don Pedro and give a monologue about how much she doesn’t fancy Benedick. “She would love this,” he declared once the clip stopped.

“She?”

Rand turned his head away, and Gillian could swear she saw him blushing. She grinned.

“Oooooh. Tell me everything!”

He hesitated, and for a moment she was worried she might have overstepped - they were friends, have been for months, but there was a significant age difference, and everyone else said Rand had always been private.

Then, right before she could apologise, he smiled and started talking. 

\---

A week later, Gillian bounced over to Rand.

“Updates,” she demanded at once, but her smile soon disappeared when she noticed his face. “What happened? Did she say no?”

Rand shook his head. “She’s being courted by somebody else,” he said curtly. “Help me get the food out.”


	2. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting even weirder! Also, October actually appears in this one.

******Summer, 2011 - Summer 2012 [One Salt Sea *** Ashes of Honor]**

October stood in front of her, and her eyes were pointy, like a Tolkien elf’s. That was almost as weird as the two versions of her standing on the other side.

“I want to go home,” she had said. She had chosen to go home, and she could see it broke October, but the woman nodded anyway. “Wait,” she said now, and October paused, hope kindling in her eyes. Gillian paused. She had never asked anyone about this before, not even her parents, her parents at home. But this was probably a dream anyway, and everything was already so weird that she might as well ask. “Are you the one who sent the cats?”

October blinked. She seemed genuinely confused by the question. “The cats? What do you mean?”

Gillian didn’t look at her. Instead, she looked at the copy of herself, the one with the pointy ears that looked like Toby. Not the Toby in the pictures at home, but the one standing in the dream in front of her. “Cats sometimes follow me around when they see me on the street. And sometimes… One time, when I was ten and you were still missing, this boy pushed me on the playground and a gang of cats appeared and started hissing at him until he ran away. And the same thing happened a year ago, when a guy from my class kept hitting on me and wouldn’t go away. Things like that.” She turned to face October. The confusion on the woman’s face slowly melted into wonder. “Did you send them?”

“No,” she said hesitantly. Then, she smiled. “No, but I think I know who did.”

“Well, can you tell them to stop? Because it’s fucking creepy!” Gillian snapped. As soon as she said it, she wanted to take it back. No, not the cats, don’t take the cats. They have always been her friends, and she loved them so much, and it was comforting to think of them as her own guardian angels, even if it was silly. It’s the reason she never told Rand, the reason she started volunteering at the shelter, to be their guardian in return.

October looked more serious now. “Gillian, the cats won’t hurt you. If I’m right, then they are trying to protect you. They have always tried to protect you, even when I’m was gone.” She said the words slowly, like she was just now realising the truth of them - like she was saying it to herself as much as to Gillian. “If you’re ever in trouble, if anybody tries to hurt you again, find a cat. Tell them who you are, and tell them to get their King. Do you understand?” 

“That’s crazy,” Gillian said, but she didn’t sound very convincing, not even to her own ears. The meadow around her shook like a bad special effect. October frowned.

“Honey, I’m sorry. We don’t have much time. You have Chosen, and I…” She turned away, and Gillian thought she saw her tear up. “I must grant you your Choice now.”

\---

Gillian woke up on a bench with a policeman shaking her shoulders. She had a headache, and all she could remember were blurry pictures from a strange dream. The policeman asked her name and where she lived and whether she was okay, and while she tried to answer she could feel a soft, warm presence pressing against her leg. A cat, with multicolored eyes, one half of its head orange, the other half black.

The cat followed them to the car and looked offended when the policeman shooed it away. Gillian watched it from the window as they left.

She didn’t go back to the shelter for over a month. When she finally did, all the others hugged her tight and bombarded her with questions. Rand and Kate hugged her the tightest on different days, and neither of them asked anything. She figured the others must have told them already. That was fine. She didn’t want to talk about it, anyway.

\---

Things went back to normal, if she ignored the strange dreams she kept having, and the way she didn’t get blisters anymore when working on her father’s car. When she asked Kate if they were dating, Kate laughed then shrugged and said, “I guess we are.” Then they kissed. Things were nice. 

(Even if Kate was still evasive. She spoke of her family often, but never told Gillian where she lived, and everytime Gillian asked if they could go to her place, Kate shook her head and opted for Gillian’s place instead. Gillian had suspected she was homeless, but she didn’t know how to ask, and it didn’t really fit in with having a big family anyway.)

Having her relationship sorted out encouraged her to ask about Rand’s crush, but she didn’t receive any good news. “She’s grieving the loss of her beloved,” Rand said. That explained why Rand was hesitant to make a move at the moment. He seemed worried about her, and Gillian wished she had the words to help. But maybe somebody else did.

Next February, Gillian surprised Rand with a gift: a DVD of the Tennant-Tate production. Rand hugged her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. At their next meeting, he happily reported that the recording actually made his “friend” smile. Mission: successful.

Early March, Miranda and Cliff travelled out of town to visit a friend and left Gillian alone for three days. Naturally, she decided this was the perfect time to go to a house party out on the edge of the city. Naturally, this was also the day she had a huge falling out with the friend who was supposed to drive her home.

Walking on foot in the cold night around midnight in the part of the city she didn’t know, Gillian was starting to think that maybe this wasn’t a very good idea. After a while, she tried to find her way back to where the party was and see if anyone could drive her home, and realised she was hopelessly lost.

Well, shit.

She took deep breaths to avoid panicking, and tried to think of her options. She didn’t have enough money with her for the bus or a cab. She had her keys, so maybe if she called a cab, she could pay it from the money that was at home - but was there enough left? Her parents were coming home tomorrow, and she’d already spent everything they left, which she sorely regretted now.

There was a gray cat grooming itself on the street corner. When it saw Gillian, it hid under a nearby car.

Gillian stopped. She was cold, tired, lost, and miserable. This was absolutely crazy. But a part of her, some half-awake part of her remembered a dream where her mother had pointy ears, a dream where her mother told her the cats would help if she needed it. Another part of her, a more awake part of her remembered one of Kate’s cryptic sentences that she refused to explain, and that Gillian could never decypher. “Cats take care of lost things. It’s just how things have always been.”

Gillian was definitely lost. Apparently, she was also at least a little bit crazy. But all the best people were, weren’t they?

She crouched next to the car and tried to find the cat with her eyes. “Uh, hello?” The cat tensed, ready to run. “Wait, don’t go! My name is Gillian.” Was she imagining it, or did the cat stop and turn back? “Listen, I’m really lost, and cold, and… Do you think… Do you know which way to go home?” The cat looked at her for a long moment, then it ran away, too fast to follow.

Not that Gillian would have followed. She cursed herself, glad that nobody saw that. What was she thinking, that the cat would open its mouth and give her directions? Stupid, stupid, stupid. This wasn’t one of her fantasy novels that she loved so much. Cats were cats, and they were good companions, but they would never understand her words.

Gillian sat down on a bench and cried, out of ideas. She could call her parents, and they would be angry, and it would take them hours to get back to the city. Or she could call one of her friends, one of the ones that didn’t turn their backs on her tonight. Maybe she could call Leah or Ron from the shelter. They wouldn’t be happy, but they would help. Leah had a car, didn’t she?

“Gillian?” She flinched at the soft voice and looked up to see Rand staring down at her. “Is everything okay?” he asked. “I was walking nearby, and saw you sitting here.”

Gillian swallowed. She looked around instinctively, as if she was expecting the gray cat from under the car to appear out of nowhere. It didn’t.

“I’m lost,” she confessed. 

Rand smiled at her with a bit of teeth. “Then you found the right person,” he said, and Gillian could almost hear Kate’s voice again. Cats take care of lost things. It’s what they do. Maybe Rand and his friends had something in common.

A sob broke out of her, and she could feel Rand’s arm sliding around her as she sat down. He held her as she cried, and waited for her to speak. She started talking about her day, the stupid fights, the friends who weren’t worth it (“you deserve better,” Rand said as he took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders), and how lost she felt, and how scared after what happened not long ago. Rand listened to all of it, gently rubbing her back. She spoke of her mother leaving and coming back, and how she wanted to know her, she wanted to know her so much, and she thought she felt Rand’s hand tense on her back.

After a while, Rand gently asked for her phone, and stepped away to let her gather herself while he called a taxi.

“I don’t have any money on me,” she said when he handed the phone back. Rand shrugged.

“I have a good discount. Don’t worry about it.”

When the car arrived, Rand helped her into the front seat. The driver was huge and intimidating, but he smiled at her so warmly that she stopped being scared after a few seconds.

“You know you don’t ride free, Catman,” the driver said.

“I’ll find you tomorrow,” Rand said dismissively. “Will you be okay, Gillian? When are your parents coming home?"  
  
“Tomorrow around noon. I can get by until then,” she assured him. “Thank you so much for doing this. I will pay you back next time I see you.”

Rand smiled, but he didn’t say anything. Not to her, anyway. “Get her home safe,” he told the driver, and she almost thought she heard a threat under the words. Then he closed the car and stepped back, and they went.

“So. Gillian, huh?” The driver said after a while. He seemed nervous, but Gillian didn’t know him well. Maybe that was just his resting face.

“Yes,” she said slowly.

The driver grinned. “Name’s Danny. Hey, nice jacket you have there.”

“What ja-- shit.” Gillian’s eyes widened. “This is not mine! It’s Rand’s. I’ll have to give this back to him as well.” She took the jacket off quickly, folding it, then paused. “Or maybe you can give it to him? I won’t see him until next week, but he said he’ll find you tomorrow.”

Danny hummed. “You know, I don’t think that’s his jacket anyway. I’ll give it back to its owner tonight. Just leave it on your seat when you get out.”

They rode in silence after that, even though Gillian had the strange feeling Danny kept trying to say something. When she got out, she thanked him for the ride, and he shook his head with a laugh. He waited until she was safely in the house before he drove away. The cat watching the door waited until he left too, waited until Gillian went upstairs, got in bed and turned off the lights, and only then did it melt into the shadows.

\---

Gillian stepped into the bookstore and gave herself a moment to take it all in, a smile spreading across her face. This always felt like coming home.

Ardith was helping somebody else, so she lingered in the young adult section looking at the covers until the other girl walked over to her. “I was beginning to think you were sick,” she said as a greeting. “I haven’t seen you in almost a month.”  
  
Gillian laughed. “Very funny. Maybe I was just broke. You know I can’t resist buying something if I just come in to browse.”

Ardith smirked, then followed her gaze to the books. “What will it be this time? Paranormal mystery? Something with romance?”

For a while, Gillian didn’t say anything. There weren’t many people in the store - that was part of the reason she liked coming here. She could just browse as she wanted, and the employees were always nice. Ardith was her favourite, of course, but everyone was nice.

“I used to love fantasy books, you know,” she said quietly. “When I was a kid. I’d read everything with mermaids and fairies and princesses. My mother left when I was very small, and I can barely remember her. I just remember…” The smell of cut grass, and the tinkling balls of light. Gillian shook her head. “I used to imagine that my mother was really a mermaid, or a selkie or a swan or whatever, and she left because she found her skin or her cloak of feathers and had to go back to the sea or the lake she came from. I used to imagine that one day she would come back and take me with her, too.”

Ardith was unusually quiet, and when Gillian looked up, she saw the other girl look at her with a strange expression. Gillian forced a smile, and Ardith smiled, too. “And then?”

“Well, my mom… my stepmom, I guess, but she’s the only mom I really remember. She didn’t like me reading and imagining all those things, which makes sense, really. I must have hurt her a lot, wishing for a mom who abandoned me when she was right there. I must have hurt my dad too, when I kept saying mom would come back. She - my stepmom - started buying me books with superheroes and mysteries and Nancy Drew and that kind of stuff. I haven’t read a book about mermaids in years.”

Gillian closed her eyes for a moment, and she could almost see a woman with bright red hair, and another woman, a woman with brown hair and grey eyes and pointed ears. She shivered and looked at Ardith again. “Do you have anything good with mermaids?” she asked quietly.

Ardith nodded. “I think there’s one that just came out. Over here.” Ardith picked up a book and flipped it over the read the back of it. “Tempest Rising. It’s about a girl called Tempest - creative - who is a half-mermaid, and her mother returned to the ocean several years ago… well, maybe this hits a little close to home, but if you like it, here it is. It says it has sweeping romance and thrilling adventure.”  
  
Gillian took the book and looked at it herself. “Have you read it?” she asked.

Ardith made a face. “Uhhhh. So, I’m supposed to recommend and sell you stuff objectively. I’m not a big fan of cheesy mermaid books with straight romance, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t like it. It does sound like the kind of stuff you said.”

“Is there anything in here that doesn’t have straight romance?” Gillian mused, more to herself than to Ardith, but she took the question seriously.

“You mean without romance, or with queer romance specifically? From the latter, we have maybe ten books in the entire store, and I might be saying too much with that. Although…” She held up a hand and walked quickly over to the next shelf, taking off a book. “Hah! There. I found the perfect book for you.” She turned around and presented it to Gillian with a huge smile. “Ash. Bisexual Cinderella where she has to choose between the world of Faerie and the human world and the girl she likes. Again, not my thing, but… I think you’d like it.”

Gillian smiled. “That does sound nice,” she said, and took the two books to the counter.

\--- 

In June, Gillian sat on the ground surrounded by cats and read her book when Rand walked in with a huge smile on his face.

“You look like a cat who’s just caught a canary,” Gillian said. Rand laughed.

“Better than a canary. In fact, I’d trade all the canaries of the world.” Gillian shut the book with her hand staying inside as a bookmark, and Rand raised an eyebrow. “Oh my. You must really be interested in what I have to say.”

Gillian rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut up.” A pause. “But don’t actually shut up. What happened?”

“We went on a  _ date _ .”

She couldn’t help it - she burst out laughing at his schoolboy-level enthusiasm. “Oh, really? Did you hold hands, too?”

Rand rolled his eyes. “As a matter of fact, we have confessed our love and kissed several times even before the date. But yes, we did hold hands. There were some… complications during the date, but overall it was a nice time, and I am confident we’ll have more, when our schedules permit.

“You’re a dork,” Gillian declared.

“What is a dork?”

“It’s what you are. If you opened a dictionary, at the word dork, they’d just have your picture.”

He shook his head with an amused look, then turned his attention to her book. “What are you reading?"  
  
Gillian looked down. “It’s called Ash. It’s a retelling of Cinderella with fairies. There’s this girl, Ash, and her mother dies but she thinks the fairies took her so she wants to go away with them too.” When Rand didn’t say anything for a suspiciously long time, she looked up again. He was staring right at her, and it was silly, but for a moment she thought his eyes looked greener than usual. “What?” she asked.

“How does it end?” Rand asked quietly. 

Gillian laughed.  “Hey, I’m not telling you the ending. If you’re curious, you’ll have to read it yourself.” Rand was still just looking at her, and not for the first time, Gillian had no idea what was going on in his head. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, then he shook his head and turned away. “Are you--”

“Are you two busy?” Leah poked her head in through the door. “Because, you know, I could really use some help over here.”

“I’ll help,” Rand volunteered, and smiled at Gillian. “Have fun reading,” he said, and walked out.

\---

A few days later, Gillian was showing Rand Much Ado memes on her phone at the front desk (it required an explanation of memes first, but he picked up on them quickly) when two teenage boys walked in through the door. The blond one stopped suddenly when he saw them and lingered awkwardly by the door, but the russet-haired one walked straight up to Rand.

“We need money for dinner,” he declared. 

Rand stared. “Since when do you need money for dinner?”

The boy turned to look at his friend, who shrugged. He turned back to Rand. “We just do,” he said.

Rand put his chin in his hands. “Really. In that tone?”

The blond boy sighed and stepped closer, but he didn’t acknowledge Gillian’s presence. “Raj and I are trying to cook dinner as a surprise, but we need to buy some stuff. We can’t ask money from the girls for obvious reasons.”

“Since one of them is your girlfriend, we thought you might want to contribute,” the russet-haired boy - Raj? that was the name of Rand’s nephew - added.

The blond boy kept looking at her from the corner of his eyes when he probably thought she couldn’t see. When she stared back, he turned away quickly. Were all of Rand’s friends weird?

Rand sighed and reached into his pockets. The boy, Raj, looked at Gillian as if he was just noticing her.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey?” Gillian said. 

Raj smirked. “Nice to meet you.” There was something strange in his tone as he said it, like there was some inside joke she wasn’t told about. Rand talked like that sometimes. They really were related. 

“Uh, yeah. You too?”

Rand pulled a few crumpled bills and a big handful of coins from various pockets, and he was busy counting them. “Twenty-four dollars, seventy-five cents,” he said finally, pushing the money towards the two boys. “If that’s not enough, you can go get a job and stop freeloading. Jason is always looking for capable waiters.”

“I will consider it,” Raj said. He was quiet for a few seconds as he stuffed the money in his pocket. “Yeah, I’m done considering. I’m not going to do that. See you later, uncle. Bye, Gillian.”

“Bye?” Gillian said, still confused by the entire interaction. The two boys walked out, Raj walking calmly, the blond boy walking like he’d rather be anywhere else. “Are they always like that?” she asked Rand, who shrugged.  
  
“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Right.”

“So, where were we?”

Gillian shrugged and pulled out her phone.


	3. Part Three

**Winter, 2013-2014** [after Night and Silence]

Gillian learned a lot about Rand’s girlfriend and eventual fiancée. It was easy to learn, because Rand never shut up about her, especially after they became official. One day, Rand came in smiling ear to ear, and when Gillian asked what happened his only answer was “she said we were  _ serious _ ”. That smile was nothing compared to the day they got engaged.

Gillian learned that she was the most beautiful woman alive, although she suspected Rand might be a little biased. More than that, Gillian learned that she was kind and brave in equal measure. The very first thing she learned was that the woman had saved Rand’s kittens, after all. She was also prone to getting into dangerous situations. Rand was evasive when Gillian asked about her job, but from the tension in Rand’s shoulders she could tell when something was wrong. Something was wrong a lot, but something was very right, too.

Gillian learned little things. She learned that the fiancée and her sister once went to a fair and she won the ugliest stuffed cat Rand had ever seen and brought it home to tease him with it. Gillian learned that the woman still got flustered everytime Rand broke out the flowery Shakespeare language. Gillian learned that she collected teenagers who could hang out at her place if they needed to just get away from something. Gillian learned that Rand couldn’t wait to marry her and he daydreamed about wedding plans at the shelter. Gillian learned to like this woman without ever meeting her, and later, she wondered if that was why Rand talked so much.

Gillian never learned the woman’s name. Rand always referred to her as “my lady” and other endearments. It was strange, but no stranger than Rand usually was.

\---

“She won’t make it as far as Berkeley. I could carry her, but not alive, Toby, I’m not fast enough.”

The voice didn’t make any sense, but it sounded familiar. Why did it sound familiar? Gillian tried to concentrate, but the burning was too much. The man pulled her close as they ran, and his scent was almost familiar, too. And then there was the freezing, and then the burning again.

“Hold fast, kitten, please hold fast, or I fear your mother will chase you to a place I cannot follow.”  
  
And--

“Can you save her? Please, can you save her? I’ll pay--”

He sounded panicked, almost like he cared. Why was he so familiar?

“You’ll pay nothing, cat. Don’t you have someplace else to be?”

That was the other voice, the scary woman. Huh. Weird way to refer to a person.

\---

The little comment got lost in all the important information, like, you know, faeries existing and Gillian being a Selkie now and both her mothers lying to her. With all that happening, it’s no wonder she only remembered it later, when they were already in the car.

_ My friend Tybalt _ .

Gillian’s head snapped up. “Wait a fucking second,” she said, louder than she meant to. 

“Language,” Miranda said meekly.

The Luidaeg shot Gillian an annoyed look, although she didn’t think it was because of the swearing. “What is it now?”

Gillian turned to her. “The man who carried me to you. Who was he?”

“Oh, that. That was your future stepfather, kid.”

So “friend” was another lie, or at least a way to simplify at least one thing when everything else was so complicated. “So his name is Tybalt? Not Rand? And he’s a fairy, too?”

Miranda made a choked sound. “You  _ know _ him?” she whimpered.

“ _ You _ know him?” Gillian said, her voice rising higher in both pitch and volume. She’d known the man for years, and didn’t she think he was strange? Didn’t everyone at the shelter think he was strange?

_ “Dad, I think one of the other volunteers is like, actually a cat,” she said once. The others joked about how Rand and the huge cat who followed his teenagers sometimes were never in the same room together. Coincidence? They thought not. They all looked so strange, didn’t they? Like they weren’t used to wearing clothes and walking on two legs, but that was silly. “That’s nice, honey,” said her father. Neither of them took the comment seriously. Miranda wasn’t there to hear it. _

Miranda looked almost like the words were painful to say. “Not personally. But I know the King of Cats. All cats in the city belong to him, mortal and faerie alike. That’s why he knows everything that happens, if he cares enough to listen.” She paused and turned her head away in shame. “It’s why we never got you a cat, honey. I didn’t lie when I said we couldn’t have one in the house.”

“But it wasn’t allergies,” Gillian said. Miranda shook her head. Gillian sat back in her seat, digesting that for a moment.

“Mom said they were watching over me,” she said quietly. “Mom said the cats were watching over me. Since I was a kid.”

“They might have been,” Miranda said, equally quiet. “They were already around you when your father introduced you. Once, we were downstairs with the window open, when a cat climbed in and started meowing at us loudly. I got scared, and ran upstairs to you. I got there just as you fell off the chair you climbed up on. You were more surprised than hurt, and you looked at me with these big eyes.” She shook her head. “There were so many little moments like that. But I was so scared they would take you, I never noticed they were helping you.”

Gillian was silent for the rest of the ride. She was thinking about the black and orange cat and its multicolored eyes.

\---

When they got home, there was a lot of crying. Gillian held on to her father like he was going to be taken from her any moment, and maybe she believed it, too. Spending time with the selkies made her long for the sea, but she was scared out of her mind that accepting it would mean giving something up.

(She already gave up her humanity, even if she was born with less of it than she thought. She would not give up her father.)

True to her word, her mother - October - let her be. She sent one brief message to let Gillian know she was available anytime, but she let Gillian make the next move. Gillian was thankful for that. She had many questions, but before she could learn more about this new life she needed to be sure she wouldn’t lose the old one.

New Year’s Eve came and went, spent at home in as much quiet as the world allowed. Her father asked once if she wanted to go hang out with her friends, and didn’t push when she said no. She felt sorry for him. This must have reminded him of the last time she was kidnapped, of how she pulled back from everyone and it took months for things to get back to normal. He didn’t know how different this time was, and if the Luidaeg was right, he never would.

Her mother - Miranda - showed her a few easy tricks that could help her hide from her father. When she slept, (her mother?) Firtha talked to her sometimes, and told her stories of (Firtha’s mother? Gillian’s mother? the selkies’ mother?) the Luidaeg, or Antigone, or Annie.

Saying she was confused was an understatement. Faerie was more than confusing. Faerie was ancient, vast, beautiful and dangerous. Faerie has been calling to her ever since she was a child, and she never consciously noticed. But Faerie was never willing to let her go.

It would have been easy to get lost in the fairytales of her youth. Didn’t she dream that her mother would come back and take her away to Fairyland? Didn’t she dream of mermaids and selkies and witches and fairies? Didn’t she dream of talking cats who would always lead her home? (Don’t think about Rand, don’t think about Kate, don’t think about how neither of them called, don’t think about how Leah and Ron DID call and she had to tell them she was taking a break, don’t think about Kate not calling, don’t think about the cat with the multicolored eyes--)

But Gillian was not a child anymore, and her recent introductions to Faerie were not kind ones. The memories of both her kidnappings were fuzzy, her human look on the events incomplete, but she remembered being in danger and she remembered being scared. She listened to the stories told by Miranda, and Toby, and Firtha, and the Luidaeg, and the selkies. Too many things Rand told her over the years were placed in a different light now that she knew, and she had the sinking feeling that there was so much blood they were hiding from her, almost ready to break the dam and spill, spill, spill. Some nights when she was almost asleep, she jerked awake as another piece suddenly fell into place. (All the hospital stays, all the kittens, all the tears…)

She wanted to talk to October, to learn everything that happened. She wanted to talk to Rand - to Tybalt? - and shout in his stupid face. She wanted to talk to Kate more than anything. Tomorrow, she thought. Or the day after. Or maybe the day after that, but certainly not today. 

In the end, it was none of those three who showed up on her windowsill.

“Prince?” Gillian squinted at the Abyssinian through the glass. He meowed and patted the window, asking to be let in. Gillian stepped closer to the door and listened for her parents, then walked to the window and opened it. The cat jumped inside and looked around the room, immediately exploring. “What are you doing? Does Rand-- does he know you’re here?”

Even with everything she knew, she still didn’t expect the cat to talk back.

She certainly didn’t expect it to grow to her size and turn into a human.

Gillian stepped back immediately, flattening herself against the wall next to the window and calculating the chances of a successful escape, but the boy didn’t seem interested in grabbing her. He tilted his head to the side, and waited.

His ears were pointed, and there was black fur growing on them. His eyes looked like a cat’s, and his hair was russet red like Prince’s fur. No, this boy wasn’t human.

“Raj?”

Rand’s nephew smiled at her with sharp teeth. “Hello, Gillian. Nice to meet you,” he said. The jerk.

Gillian frowned and crossed her arms. “Why lie about the names?” she demanded. 

Raj looked surprised. “That’s your most burning question?” He shrugged. “It’s not really lying. My name is Raj, and I am a Prince of Cats. If my uncle had referred to both as his cat and his nephew by the same name, you would have gotten confused or found it strange. As for his name, you’ll have to ask him, but it’s not really lying either, more like giving your rarely used middle-name in certain situations.”

He walked to Gillian’s bed and flopped down on it like he owned the place. He wiggled experimentally, testing the comfort-level. He acted like such a cat that Gillian had to smile. She quickly arranged her face back into a frown when she noticed.

“What are you doing here?”

Raj looked up at her, and she could see his eyes were green, so green, green like Rand’s and yet so different. “The others didn’t want to come, because they thought you were still angry and would throw them out. But I think it’s better to rip the bandaid off and get things in the open. I’ve had enough of avoiding talking to each other.” He made a show of shivering at whatever memory he was referring to. “There is a party tonight. You should come. Make some friends. See something that isn’t grand magic gestures or crazy people trying to kidnap you.”

Gillian still looked wary. “What kind of party?”

“Toby calls it a sleepover, which is stupid because most of us sleep during the day, and certainly not at the party. But we wear pajamas, and most people there will actually be your age, not just look like it. You might even recognise some of them.” He shrugged, then smirked. “Like me. We’re already friends, remember?”

Gillian leaned forward to pick up her pillow, just so she could throw it at him. He dodged effortlessly. The jerk.

“So it’s tonight?” She paused. “What time?”

“You can come anytime. Quentin is picking up Dean, so they’ll probably be there by the time we go. And of course, Toby, my uncle, May and Jazz are going to be home as well. The girls will show up later.”

“I literally only know two of those people.”

Raj shrugged. “You know Chelsea Ames, don’t you? I think she mentioned running into you a few times. And you’ve probably met Karen’s sister when you were smaller.”

Gillian “Wha-- I do know Chelsea Ames! She’s… I mean, she’s… she’s… what?”

  
Raj seemed unbothered by her crisis. “See? You met Quentin at the shelter last time, and you technically met Dean already you just don’t remember, so that’s at least six people. Seven if they’re bringing Peter, but he’s a bit younger than the rest of us.” He paused for a moment. “Kate makes eight,” he added, like it was just an afterthought.

Gillian felt like her brain was just going to shut down after all that information. She had no idea where she met all those people he just listed, and she was scared of facing everyone when everyone seemed to know her so much better than she knew them. But what the hell, right? Maybe Raj was right about ripping the bandaid off.

“I need to ask my parents,” she said.

“You don’t need to ask Toby for permission. She’d be happy if you came.”

  
Gillian had a feeling Raj was being obnoxious on purpose. “Well, I don’t live with Toby, do I? So I need to ask the parents who will actually miss me tonight. Uh.” She glanced towards the door. “Do you want to… come downstairs?”

Raj shook his head. “I would literally rather do anything else. I’ll wait for you outside.”

It was difficult to decide whether Cliff or Miranda looked more worried when Gillian announced she’d be going to a sleepover at October’s place, but neither of them outright said no. They only told her to make sure her phone was fully charged and not on silent, and her dad checked if he had October’s number, and then they told her to take care. Her mom looked like she wanted to say more, but she couldn’t with her dad around. 

Gillian put everything she’d need in her bag with a cat with glasses on it and ran outside to look for Raj. He had to wave before she spotted him half-hidden between a car and a tree.

“Do you want to take the boring way or the fun way?”

Gillian squinted suspiciously. “What’s the fun way like?”

  
Raj shrugged. “A bit cold. But you’ll have to get used to it if you’re going to hang around us, and it’s much faster than anything else.”

“... Fine.”

Raj took hold of her arm and looked around, satisfied when he saw nobody was watching them. “Hold your breath,” he advised, then fell back into the shadow of the car and pulled her with him.

It was cold, so incredibly cold, and so dark she couldn’t see anything. She held her breath like Raj advised and clutched his hand so tight she thought her fingers would break in the cold. They ran, and she remembered being carried and frost forming on her body. She thought they had just stepped into a hallway then.

Then they stepped out of the cold and everything came at once. They were standing in a living room, and the Glee version of Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream was playing. The blond boy she’d seen in the shelter with Raj was wearing a bedsheet as a cloak and an origami crown, and he was dipping another boy his age into a kiss while a younger boy was making fake disgusted noises on the couch.

Okay then.

Raj made an annoyed noise next to her and then he was gone. The boy with the crown had just let go of the other one when Raj grabbed him forcefully and pulled him into a kiss. Gillian’s gaze flickered to the stranger to see how he’d react, but he was only shaking his head and laughing. Then he turned his head towards Gillian and stopped.

He had pointed ears like the others, and a sort of noble grace about him, like a fairy prince from one of her dreams. Gillian could feel herself blush, and nearly stepped back when the boy came towards her.

“Hi,” he said. He bowed his head to her, which she would have found kind of funny if her heart wasn’t beating so fast. “My name’s Dean. I think…” His gaze flickered back to the younger boy on the couch who was now looking at them curiously.

“Have we met before?” Gillian blurted out, with Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty playing somewhere in the back of her mind. Dean looked back at her, and his smile seem forced.

“We did,” he admitted. “We didn’t really talk, but I remember seeing you. In the woods, when Rayseline Torquill…” 

  
The name didn’t say anything to Gillian, or at least not to her conscious mind, but as soon as he said it she could remember a woman with fox-red hair and a creepy laugh, calling her sister. She shivered, and Dean smiled apologetically. It didn’t seem like he was very comfortable talking about this either.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you… in… not there,” Gillian said.

Dean’s smile turned more genuine. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well,” he said, then gestured towards the younger boy on the couch. “This is my brother, Peter.”

“Hi,” Peter said.

“Hi,” Gillian replied. She looked at the boy a little longer before she asked, “Wait. Didn’t you have a tail? Or was that part really a dream?”   
  
Peter laughed. “I did. I still do, it’s just not very comfortable on land.”

Gillian had so many questions about that, but before she could ask any of them the blond boy who was apparently very popular stepped up and waved at her.

“Hi, I’m Quentin,” he said. “I’m really sorry about acting weird last time. I wasn’t sure if you saw me in the forest, or if you’d remember me even if you did, so I thought it was better not to risk it.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Gillian said awkwardly, then looked around. “Uh, Raj said Chelsea would be here?” And Kate, but she wasn’t quite ready to voice that question.

“She’s supposed to pick up Karen, but she got held up…”

There were footsteps from behind Gillian. “What are our numbers?” somebody asked, and when she turned around she came face-to-face with her mother with purple hair.  The woman stopped immediately when she saw Gillian, and the two of them stared at each other in mutual shock.

“You could have given a warning,” Quentin said.

“That takes the fun out of it,” Raj murmured.

“Mom?” Gillian asked in confusion, and the woman flinched. 

“I--” It looked like she was going to cry. Gillian glanced at Raj for help, but he offered none.

“That’s May,” Quentin said helpfully. At least he probably thought it was helpful.

May blinked the tears out of her eyes and forced a smile. “Hi, Gillian,” she said. “I’m your mom’s sister, May.”

Gillian frowned. “Since when does Mom have a sister?”

May shrugged. “She has two, but the other one is kind of a jerk.”

“Let me guess. Her name is June?”

Quentin snorted behind her, and even May chuckled. “It’s August, actually. Don’t ask, we’ve filled half the calendar. It’s a family thing.”

Gillian nodded slowly. May still seemed a little awkward, and she was definitely tearing up. “Uh,” she said eloquently, and kind of spread her arms. “Do you want to--”

“Yes,” May said before she could finish the sentence. “I mean, only if you want to. It’s fine if you don’t.”

Gillian shrugged, and stepped forward to hug her. It was a little weird to hug your aunt that you just met for the first time when she was also crying, but it seemed like May needed it, and Gillian wanted these people to like her. Even if they were really weird, and apparently not just because of the faerie thing.

“Toby and Tybalt will be home soon,” May said. The names still so sounded so foreign to Gillian's ears, especially paired like that. “Who else are we missing? Chelsea, Karen?”

“Kate,” Raj added.

“Peachy. Hey, that’s more girls than last time! Nice job. I’ll be upstairs with Jazz if you need me.” She left quickly, tears still in her eyes, and it only looked a little like she was escaping.

There was silence for a short while as everyone adjusted to the situation. Then Gillian turned to Peter, remembering her earlier question.

“Tail,” she said.

“Peter and I are both half-Merrow,” Dean answered. “What you would call merfolk, I suppose,” he added when he saw her confused look.

“So you’re like a real mermaid prince?” Gillian squealed excitedly, then clapped her hand over her mouth. Raj laughed loudly, and Quentin murmured something like, ‘of all the people in the room’. Dean also laughed, although quieter than Raj and Gillian could have sworn he was blushing. Great, at least she wasn’t alone.

“My mother is a Duchess, and I am a Count. So no, not a prince. And not really a mermaid. I don’t mind too much if you call me that, but you’ll want to be more careful around other Merrow.”

  
“They punch people a lot,” Quentin added. “Especially Dean’s mother. She’s the punching champion.”

“Mermaids punch people?” Gillian asked. “Awesome.” She looked at the pair of Raj and Quentin, and back to Dean. “So, uh… you guys are…” She made some vague hand motions. Raj raised an eyebrow, but he still wasn’t willing to be helpful.

“Bi?” Quentin supplied.

“Well, yeah, but that’s not what I meant.”

“Quentin is dating both Raj and I,” Dean said.

“And you’re dating Kate,” Raj spoke, looking at Gillian. She returned his comment with a glare.

“Yes, I am. But we’re not really exclusive, if that’s what you’re getting at. And besides…” She turned away. “I don’t… We’re kind of weird at the moment, I think. And cats and water don’t mix well.” She looked back at Raj. “Because she’s a cat, right?”

Raj shrugged. Before she could have told him where to shove his attitude, two people stepped out of the shadows just like Raj and her did earlier. Rand was holding Toby in his arms in a bridal carry, and she was already shaking the frost out of her hair.

“This cold isn’t good for my old bones,” Toby was saying, and Rand laughed as he put her down.

“You’re not old, little fish. Get back to me in three hundred years.”

“I’d love to,” Toby said softly, and Rand’s hand stopped on her waist. The two of them stared at each other, seemingly unaware that anyone else was in the room. Rand had such an awed look on his face that Gillian almost reconsidered her plan to shout at him for being a jerk and secretly being engaged to her Mom. Almost.

“You,” she said, pointing straight at him. “I have words to say to you. Three of them, to start with.” Toby and Rand looked at her at the same time, and they both looked a little guilty. Gillian spread her arms. “What the fuck?!”

“Language,” Toby said, likely out of reflex.

Rand let go of her sheepishly and stepped closer to Gillian. “Good evening, Gillian,” he said. “I think it’s time I re-introduced myself.” He gave a little bow, then smiled at her as he straightened up. “I am Tybalt, King of Cats, and also your mother’s fiancé.” Gillian opened her mouth to speak, but he continued quickly. “It’s true that I didn’t tell you any of that, and you have every right to be mad at me for it. But omitting that information is my only crime. I didn’t orchestrate our first meeting at the shelter - it was entirely by chance. And I didn’t spy on you for your mother - I didn’t report back on our conversations, and she didn’t even know we had met until the day I helped you get home from your friend’s party.”

“And I already shouted at him for that,” Toby said.

“And also, you’re the huge cat,” Gillian added.

Tybalt nodded. “And also, I’m the huge cat. I apologise for that as well. It is my duty to watch over my people, but there have been a number of days in the last few years when I didn’t feel up to talking to the volunteers, especially…” He glanced at her mom, but Gillian already knew what he was going to say. “There were times when your mother was… unwell, and on those days, I couldn’t bear to see you. There were only a few occasions when you mentioned your mother in my presence, and your words were rarely kind. Standing there with no way to defend her was akin to torture even on a better day.” Toby stepped closer and leant against his side, and Tybalt glanced at her before turning back to Gillian. “On those days, it was easier to come as a cat and let my people do the talking for me.”

“Well… it worked out,” Gillian said quietly. After that speech, she could hardly stay mad at him - and besides, without him she wouldn’t have met Kate either. “I’m still kind of mad at you, though.”

“And I will spend the rest of our lives making it up to you,” Tybalt said solemnly.

Gillian blinked. “Wow, dude. Okay, then.” 

“Quentin,” said Toby suddenly. “What are you wearing? And also, should you be wearing that?”

Quentin groaned. “It’s a joke! And nobody who doesn’t already know will think anything of it unless you point it out like that.”

Toby frowned. “Well, if you say so.”

“Wait, I wasn’t done yet!” Gillian said. “How do you do that stepping out of nowhere thing? Also!” She turned around quickly and pointed at Raj. “Just for the record, freezing to death in the dark is NOT and should never be referred to as the fun way to travel!”

“Oh my,” Tybalt said, with Toby turning away to cover her laugh. “She really is your daughter. It reminds me of the old times.”

“You mean the old times when your favourite pastime was scaring the crap out of me and making cryptic comments?” Toby asked.

Tybalt nodded. “Also, saving your life.”

“And watching over my daughter while I was gone,” Toby said, gentler than before.

Tybalt shrugged and turned away, feigning nonchalance. “That was mostly my people, not me personally.”

“So have you been spying on me all my life? Ever since mom disappeared?” Gillian asked.

Tybalt sighed. “I can see you’re worried about this, so I will try to explain. No, I wouldn’t call it spying, exactly. While your mother was gone, I made sure that my people, mostly mundane cats, or those of us called merlins who have some little faerie blood knew about you, and knew to come to me if they saw anything dangerous. Cats see different things as dangerous, so there were some false alarms. But regardless, they weren’t reporting back to me on your daily life.” He went quiet for a moment before continuing. “October’s disappearance fascinated many of us. I can’t say no true Cait Sidhe ever got curious and decided to check in on you. But I only started having them watch you after your first kidnapping, when I realised more serious security was needed.”

“Tell her about the Shadow Roads,” Toby said.

“The Shadow Roads are the privilege of the Cait Sidhe. We are able to traverse their cold and dark hallways and transport others through them if we need to, although it can be quite taxing on us, especially if the other person is scared or rejects the shadows. But if all parties are calm and embrace the experience, it can indeed be a fun and fast way to travel.”

Gillian still had a lot of questions, but she forgot all of them when another person stepped out of the shadows. Kate stopped and looked around, and she looked every bit a frightened animal as she took in the people in the room. Her hair was black and orange like always, but the patterns of the colours were different - it looked less like artificial highlights and more like the fur of a cat.

“Uhm,” she said, then bowed quickly towards Tybalt and Toby. “My liege. Sir Daye.” Gillian made a mental note to ask about that, but then Kate was looking at her and it didn’t seem very important at all.

“That’s Kate,” Raj said, likely for the benefit of the boys who’d been quietly arguing about movie choices and pizza toppings while Gillian interviewed her new-old parents. “I invited her.”

Gillian and Kate were still staring at each other.

“Oh boy,” said May, who had apparently re-entered the room sometime in the last few minutes. “I’m getting some déjà vu here. Is everyone okay?”

“Hey Lordens, help me get the ice cream out,” Quentin said. “Raj? Are you coming?”

“No, this is too interesting,” Raj said. Gillian was vaguely aware of the three boys fleeing the room while the adults and Raj watched the scene unfold. Tybalt, Raj and May looked curious, and Toby looked mostly confused.

Kate cleared her throat. “Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” Gillian said. “You’re a cat. And you have pointy ears.”

Kate glanced towards Tybalt, then nodded. “Yeah. I… I wasn’t allowed to tell you.”

Gillian thought of her father and the warnings the Luidaeg gave her. “I know.” There was silence again, and Gillian couldn’t take it anymore. “This is stupid,” she said, then took a step forward to press their lips together.

Toby made a surprised noise and punched Tybalt in the arm. The kiss was brief, and when Gillian pulled away she could see Kate went completely red in the face, all the way to her ears. That was new. Most of the time, it was her who enjoyed flustering Gillian.

“Busted,” Raj said. Gillian, who always kinda wished she had a sibling, was now reconsidering.

Kate frowned. “Oh, come on. Like you’re not already dating her other kid,” she said, but Gillian saw her shoot a worried look towards Toby and Tybalt.

“Wait.” Toby raised a hand. “Hold on. How many kids do I have?”

“Three,” said Raj.

“That really depends on how liberally you count,” said May.

“Didn’t you tell Blind Michael you were there for your kids and then brought home over twenty of them?” said Tybalt.

Toby punched him in the arm again. “You knew my daughter was dating one of your people?”

  
Tybalt shrugged. “It wasn’t my place to tell you.”

“Oh, right,” Gillian said. “Mom, this is my girlfriend, Kate.”

Kate looked a little scared, and Gillian didn’t really understand why. Although she probably would have been scared when meeting Kate’s parents, too. “It’s nice to meet you, Sir Daye. I’ve heard a lot about you,” she said.

Toby made a face. “You can just call me Toby, you know.”

Kate shook her head. “You’re my girlfriend’s mother,  _ and _ my King’s consort,  _ and _ my Prince’s pseudo-mom  _ and _ the Hero of the Realm. If you want me to do that, it will take a while.”

“You had no problem calling me Rand and treating me as a friend,” Tybalt pointed out.

“That was part of the cover and completely different!”

“Well, if you’re all done,” Raj said, “now that everyone else has fled the room, we can pick the movie. I’m voting for the Aristocats.”

“I love the Aristocats,” Gillian said.

“Yeah, I know,” Raj said at the same time Kate said, “What’s the Aristocats?”

“Okay, now we  _ definitely _ have to watch it.”

Raj grabbed the movie, and he’d already put it in by the time the boys came back with the ice cream.

“Hey, you picked the movie without us? That’s not fair!” Quentin said.

“Now you won’t get any ice cream,” Peter said, which was met by loud protests and some hissing by both teenage cats present.

“We can’t start without Karen and Chelsea, anyway,” Dean was saying. Gillian felt a light touch on her shoulder.

“Gilly, can we talk for a minute?” Toby said.

Gillian nodded. She was thankful for the rescue, because she was definitely getting overwhelmed by all the new information - especially given the obvious fact that none of these teens were actually human. That would take some getting used to, even with her own updated status as a selkie.

Toby lead her to the kitchen, followed by Tybalt and May, the latter of which lingered behind them like she wasn’t sure if she’d be welcome. When Toby noticed, she reached out to pull her into the kitchen and shut the door behind her.

“You’ve met May, then?” Toby asked.

  
Gillian nodded. “Yeah. But like, since when do you have a sister?”

“She’s had one before she was even born,” Tybalt said, around the same time May said “For the last couple of years.”

Toby rolled her eyes. “Okay! Yes, I do have a half-sister called August who is older than me and my mother didn’t bother telling me about her until recently, when she conveniently needed me to find her. We don’t really… talk about that.” 

  
There was an awkward silence, and Gillian could see Toby reach for Tybalt’s hand and squeeze it tight.

“I guess it runs in the family,” Gillian said.

Toby flinched, but then she nodded. “I suppose. It’s what I told Rayseline.” Before Gillian could ask about that, Toby went on. “As for May, she’s kind of a special case. Uh, May, do you want to explain instead?”

  
“What, that I used to be your death omen? I’m not sure that’s a sleepover party topic. Am I supposed to explain the nighthaunts, too?” Toby shrugged, and May thought for a moment before turning to Gillian. “I’m a Fetch. Fetches are pureblood fae who appear when somebody is going to die. Not everybody gets a Fetch, but when you do, it’s a warning that you don’t have much time to get your affairs in order.” May gestured between her and Toby. “Fetches wear your face, and they have all your memories up to the point of their creation. They have no memories of their own, only those of others. Of course, then our mom… well, Toby’s mom did something weird that we still don’t really understand, and now we’re both still here and neither of us is dead.”

“But you don’t look the same. You look closer to Mom in the pictures at home, just… with pointy ears.”

“I used to look like that,” Toby said. “That’s… another very long story. But when May appeared, we looked identical, and we both looked very close to my human disguise. Nowadays, May looks more like who I used to be than I do.” She shrugged and crossed her arms, which made her look like she was self-conscious about it. 

Gillian must not have been the only one who noticed, because Tybalt put an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “You’ve always been beautiful,” he purred.  
  
“Okay. That’s still _super_ weird,” Gillian said.

May laughed. “Welcome to our life. They do a lot of PDA.”  
  
“Like you and Jazz don’t,” Toby shot back.

May shrugged. “Maybe, but we didn’t spend at least two years denying our love and sulking at home when the other wasn’t talking to us, driving all our friends absolutely bonkers.”

Gillian looked between the three of them, and at May's words, she remembered Rand talking about his crush and how oblivious she was to his feelings. It still felt unreal that he'd been talking about her own mother all along. “Looks like I missed a lot."

Tybalt nodded. “If we tried to tell you everything at once, we’d be here for a week and your head would explode. Not to mention the fact that much of it is… not easy or pleasant to talk about, and certainly not pleasant to listen to. So if you feel like we haven’t told you everything, please know it’s not out of malice.”

A small part of Gillian wanted to ask about all those hospital visits Rand's friend went through and what really happened, but she was too scared of the answer. Her mother was here now, alive and well, and she apparently had an aunt and a stepfather she didn’t know about. That would have to be enough.

“What about my other aunt? August? You said you had to find her, so where is she now?”

Toby sighed, and Gillian could sense this was one of the difficult topics. “She lives with my mother. My mother is… well, let’s say that our relationship is… rather bad at the moment. August is a similar, but different case. She was raised by my mother, and she was raised to be a huge bigot, so we don’t get along very well. But some of us think she could be different if she got other influences, and not just Amandine.”

“Like Dean’s parents,” May said. “They used to know August before she disappeared, and Patrick, Dean’s father was good friends with August’s father. He’s been trying to talk to August and make her… not like that.”

  
“Still, I doubt August will be coming around here anytime soon, so you don’t need to think about her too much,” Toby said. Then she made a face. “I suppose… I suppose I should introduce you to Sylvester. He’s… my uncle.”

“Your rich uncle who owns the house?” Gillian asked, grateful to finally know about something without being told.

Toby nodded. “Yes. When I was a child, he was a good friend of my mother, and so when humans asked about him I said he was my Uncle because it was easier than explaining. Then later I found out that my mother used to be married to his brother before she got together with my father, so technically he’s been my step-uncle all along.”

“Wow. That sounds like a pretty weird family.”

“You don’t know half of it,” Toby said, and Gillian really hoped that was just an expression. She wasn’t sure how much more weirdness she could take.

“Gillian!” Quentin shouted from the living room. “We’re ready to start the movie if you are!”

Gillian looked at Toby and she smiled back. “Go on.”

May was looking at her almost the same way Toby was, and Gillian faltered. She had said she had all of Toby’s memories before she appeared. Did that mean all the years with Gillian and her father, and all the years in whatever place she was in after she got abducted? That must have been really weird.

“Will you guys be around?” she asked.

“We’re not exactly invited to the party,” Tybalt said. “But we’ll likely stay in the house, so you’ll find us if you need to.”

Gillian hesitated a little longer, then quickly, before she could change her mind, she stepped forward and put her arms around Toby. Her mother made a surprised noise, but she hugged back immediately. She reached out with one hand, blindly trying to find Rand - Tybalt to pull him into the hug. "Get in here before I change my mind. You too, May." Six arms held her tight in a Gillian-sandwich. If she closed her eyes and let the feeling take her, it almost felt like it was supposed to be that way. Maybe one day she'll be able to abandon the _almost_.

Toby’s phone started ringing, so Gillian thought this was a good time to pull out of the embrace, make her awkward escape without really looking at anyone, and return to the teens in the other room. 

\---

While she was away, everyone settled on the couch or at least more or less around the couch. Raj was in cat form sitting in Quentin’s lap, who was half-lying in Dean’s lap. Peter was sitting next to them leaning against his brother, and Kate was on the pile of pillows on the ground. There were two other girls present, and Gillian had to a double take when she realised she recognised one of them.

“Hi,” Chelsea Ames said, grinning at her. She had pointy ears, too, and she looked a little different from the last time Gillian had seen her. They were never really close, but they spoke a couple of times, mostly debating about the folktales that were the material for Professor Ames’s class, and said hello when they passed each other on campus.

“Hi,” Gillian said as she settled between Chelsea and Kate. She waved to the girl sitting on Chelsea’s other side. “You must be Karen.”

Karen nodded with a smile. “Hi, Gillian. It’s great to see you. You remember my sister, Cassandra Brown?”

Gillian sort of remembered having a friend by that name when she was smaller, but she didn’t think they’d met since she was six. She didn’t remember why they stopped meeting. Given their age, it must have been the decision of one of their parents. She nodded at the question, but Karen was already turning away to answer an excited question from Peter behind her.

“Welcome to the human-turned-fae club,” Chelsea said, keeping her voice low. The movie has technically started, but everyone was still chattering away, just being slightly quieter about it. Kate didn’t say anything, but she cuddled against Gillian’s side.

“Technically, I was never human,” Gillian said. “Well, I was for a short while, but not when I was born. It’s complicated.”  
  
Chelsea nodded. “I know what you mean. I was born as half-fae, and my mother was hiding me from everyone and having me learn how to pretend to be human. Which was pretty weird, because she was also human, and believe me, studying folklore doesn’t prepare you for actually having a fae child.” She touched the tip of her ears and frowned. “But now we both live with my father at Shadowed Hills, surrounded by Faerie everywhere, and I’m a pureblood. So it’s been a ride.”

“I’m glad there’s someone else here who’s as new to this as I am,” Gillian said.

“Oh, definitely. I mean, Quentin went to a human high school for a bit, and he actually has a smartphone with internet, and Karen’s siblings have spent a lot of time around humans too, but they all still mostly grew up in Faerie, you know? Hey, you go to Berkeley, right? I’m gonna introduce you to all my fae friends. Most of them are changelings or quarter-bloods, but there are also some pureblood kids who just like checking out how the other side lives, I guess.” Gillian’s head was already spinning. Her folklore teacher knowing about Faerie was one thing, but how many others at the school must have known as well? A lot, if Chelsea was to be believed.

Raj turned back into his two-legged form just long enough to tell all of them to shut up and watch the movie, and after that, the whispering was kept to the minimum. At one point, Toby came in to take their pizza orders then left. Kate and Raj both started softly purring at different points, but nobody really pointed it out. It was a little strange to sit in a heap of faerie teens with her cat girlfriend purring against her side, but just like with the sea, Gillian decided that maybe she wanted this. She wanted this a lot.

\---

The end credits were rolling and half the group has left to the toilet, or to get more ice cream, or to stretch their legs. Tybalt has borrowed Kate for a few minutes, and Gillian was still trying to come terms with the idea that Tybalt was an actual King who was apparently in charge of Kate, but not her. Chelsea and Quentin explained to her the basics about the Kingdoms (which mostly meant Quentin explaining and Chelsea translating it into human geographical terms), including the name of the one they were in, and how the Court of Cats was separate from all of that.

  
Gillian was busy questioning Dean about the Undersea and all its races, many of whom would never come on land, when a literal portal opened in the middle of the living room and a young woman stepped out. She was wearing a dress, but Gillian’s eyes were drawn to the crown on her head. It was a rather small crown, if a crown could be small, but it was certainly a crown - and not one made out of paper like Quentin’s. If Dean was the mermaid prince from her dreams, she was every bit of a Faerie Queen: supernaturally beautiful and commanding respect, yet still not terrifying like the False Queen who kidnapped her.

“Where’s October?” she asked, looking around the room. Her eyes fell on Dean and Gillian and widened immediately. She looked familiar somehow, but Gillian couldn’t place her.

“She’s upstairs, Your Majesty,” Dean said politely, even though he seemed more than a little tense. The woman - she looked young, almost Gillian’s age, but it was difficult to think of her as a girl - looked at him and nodded.

“Count Lorden. I hope everything is well.” Dean must have replied something equally polite, but Gillian was too distracted, both by the literal Queen in front of her, and the fact that she addressed Dean next to her by a title. He’d already told her she was a Count, but she kind of thought he was joking. Tybalt and Raj might have been King and Prince, too, but neither of them wore a crown, and they both seemed so… normal, besides the whole fairy thing.

It took a woman in a crown to drive home the point that maybe she just happened to catch them on a casual day.

The woman’s eyes returned to Gillian, and she could see them travelling all the way up to her pointed ears, over her freckles, and to the skin between her fingers. The Queen in the Mists smiled, and suddenly she looked even more familiar.

“I guess your mother came back to bring you to Faerie after all,” she said.

Gillian blinked. “Ardith?” she squeaked.

“It’s Arden, actually. But yes.” Arden shook her head in amusement. “I didn’t realise you were October’s daughter until now. I’d suspected you had faerie blood, so all your talk of fantasy novels was more than a little ironic, but I didn’t realise.”

“You’re a fae,” Gillian said.

“Yes.”

“And you’re a Queen.”

“Also yes.”

“You’re the Queen of the Kingdom we are in.”

“Yes to that as well.”

“But you were a bookseller!”

Arden made a face. “It’s a long story. The short version is that I was in hiding after a fake Queen stole my throne, then October showed up and convinced me to step up and take it back. I haven’t decided yet if she ruined my life or improved it.”

Gillian was quiet for a moment. “Well, we have that in common. Although tonight has been pretty nice. But if every day after this is going to be this intense, then I’m going to need to increase my anxiety meds.”

Arden’s laugh was interrupted by Quentin stepping back into the room.

  
“Oh, hey Arden,” he said. It didn’t seem like he was very surprised to see her, unlike Dean, who acted how Gillian expected people to act around an actual Queen. “Did you come for the party? No offense, but you kind of missed the dress code. It’s supposed to be pajamas.”

Arden’s eyebrows shot up, and she examined Gillian and Dean more closely. “You’re actually having a pajama party? I just figured Count Lorden is adjusting to the diurnal schedule.”

Quentin shook his head and gestured to himself. “Nope. Pajama party. We’re going to watch movies and eat trash food. You’re staying?”

“Who else is here?”

“Well… us, Dean’s brother, Raj, Kate - she’s Gillian’s Cait Sidhe girlfriend -, Karen Brown, you know her from the conclave, and Chelsea, Sir Étienne’s daughter. And of course, Toby, Tybalt, May and Jazz are upstairs.”

“You realise I’m a hundred years older than most of those people.”

Quentin shrugged. “Sure. But you spent a century pretending to be a human young adult who sells books, so I think you’ll be fine.”

Arden frowned. “I’m a Queen. I can’t just hang out with my subjects in my pajamas and then expect them to respect me the next day.”

Quentin raised an eyebrow and gestured to his pajamas again, complete with the bedsheet cloak and the paper crown. A question was building in the back of Gillian’s mind, but she filed it for later.

“That’s completely different and you know it,” Arden said, a little annoyed. “And aren’t you supposed to be keeping it a secret?”

This time, Quentin was the one who made a face. “I am! But there are no secrets in Toby’s house, that’s the rule. And not _ everyone _ knows. Well, I mean, Karen probably does because she can see our dreams, but… I don’t think Chelsea knows? And probably Kate doesn’t either? Hey, does Peter know?” He turned to Dean at the last question, who shrugged helplessly. “Right. The point is, they aren’t going to tell anyone.”

“Not even if they are kidnapped and pressed for information?” Arden asked.

Quentin’s face darkened. “That’s not going to happen. Or if it does, then whoever hurt them for that information won’t be sharing it with anyone else.”

“Right.” Arden sighed. “I’m going to very deliberately not ask you to clarify that sentence.” She raised her hands, and this was the first time Gillian examined the plain wooden box she was holding. “I brought the artifact October asked for. Can you give it to her? And please, try not to break it.”

Quentin stepped forward to take the box. “So you’re not staying?”  
  
“We’ve already discussed this. No, I’m not staying.”  
  
“Have you read The Madman’s Daughter yet?” Gillian asked suddenly.

Arden looked at her, surprise in her eyes. “No, I haven’t. I’m a lot busier nowadays, so I don’t have much time to read.”

“Well, what about the Micah Grey book then? Or Mind Games? Those both came out early last year, and I know you were looking forward to them. I went in to talk to you when they came out, but you were gone and the others couldn’t tell me where you worked.”

Arden stared. She tried to keep a straight face, but Gillian could see her resolve crumbling.

“I’ve read Pantomine,” she admitted.

Gillian smiled. “I have the sequel that just came out in my backpack. I got my pre-order yesterday.”

Arden looked at Quentin, who was staring at her with a grin on his face. She looked back at Gillian, then Dean, then finally sighed. “I’m going to change my clothes,” she said. “And I’m going to ask Nolan if he wants to come.” She made a face. “He probably won’t, or he’ll leave early, but I like to give him the option.”

She opened another portal and stepped through, like it was nothing.

“Who was that?” Chelsea asked as she entered the room.

“Queen Windermere,” Quentin said. “Or, since she’s about to join us for the party: Arden.”

“Was anyone going to tell me that my favourite bookseller is the Queen in the Mists, or was I just supposed to find out when she opens a freaky portal right in front of me?” Gillian asked.

Chelsea looked at her in surprise. “Oh, right, you missed the portal. Karen and I came in through one too, you just weren’t here. They’re pretty handy.”

“As long as you’re not opening them into Deep Faerie,” Toby said from behind them. “Arden was here? She brought the vials?” Quentin nodded, and Toby reached out to take the box from him. “Great. I’m going to call Walther and have him walk me through whatever I’m supposed to do with them.” The doorbell rang, and she glanced at the gathered teens. “Well? Go get your pizzas. Quentin, you know where the money is.”

\---

Arden came back half an hour later with her brother, Nolan, who talked a little strange and called her Lady Daye. Some of the other teens, mostly Chelsea, Karen and Dean were at first awkward in the presence of the Queen, but once Arden and Gillian got into a heated debate about YA fantasy fiction, tensions were starting to melt away.

Arden knew exactly what fantasy creatures Gillian had always liked, and was eager to tell her all about whether they existed and what the humans got wrong and what existing creatures were at least similar to them. They ate more pizza than Gillian has ever seen in one place, watched four more movies and talked through most of them, and loudly sang along to Quentin’s music until Toby came in and told them to keep it down because the human neighbours would call the police on them.

Since she was up all day, Gillian was pretty tired by 2am which was apparently the middle of the day for several of the others. She ended up half-asleep on Kate’s shoulder with her legs in Dean’s lap, still listening to the conversation around her. Nolan had went home earlier - he enjoyed himself at first, but as Arden explained, he got overwhelmed quickly and it was a good sign that he agreed to check out the party at all. Gillian could relate.

Quentin leaned across Dean to whisper in her ear. “Next Tuesday, I’m going to convince the Luidaeg to come to the Aquarium with me,” he said. “Do you want to come?”

“I’ll need to ask my parents,” Gillian answered. “My other parents.” She was still getting used to the idea of having her birth mother back, and now she also needed to adjust to two fun lesbian aunts, and one of her friends of several years becoming her stepfather. “But if I get home okay after tonight, they’ll probably let me go.”

Quentin nodded and pulled back, immediately getting into a heated debate with Raj over -- Gillian wasn’t listening anymore. She dozed off on Kate’s shoulders, with Dean’s hand gently placed on hers, feeling the same as she did at the selkies’ house after eating all that fish.

Things were going to be pretty okay.


End file.
